JonnyF

I am talking about Paul Whelan. Nobody had heard of him until he was included as a side dish in the Griner deal. Lucky for him a black lesbian celebrity got sentenced. Otherwise he would have been rotting for years and none of us would even know who he was.

Yes I am sure the US made their usual reassurances, before abandoning them as other issues take priority. I'm sure you know the examples. Good luck Taiwan, Pelosi will have another pet project/photo opp to amuse her next week while you pick up the pieces of the sanctions for years.

I'm sure the Taiwanese fisherman and fruit farmers will take great comfort from that. Pelosi only destroyed their businesses.

It was also the British who introduced Causcasians to Australia. Mostly prisoners. Which is ironic given that most Australian government authorities now seem to have an obsession with creating an authoritarian police state. Very sad to see the way the place is going. Every time I visit, the urge to return diminishes.

Maybe when police raid night time venues they could check exit doors are unlocked and there are no fireworks etc. on stage? You know, instead of looking for vaping devices or forcing patrons to pee in a bottle in public in case they took a pill?

What a narcissist. Stirring up political tensions and instigating Chinese sanctions on Taiwanese businesses for what? Her ego and imagined political legacy. Pelosi is a disgrace. A total disgrace.

It's irrelevant in terms of the crime. But in terms of support from the Woke Dems and the media it is definitely in her favour. A great opportunity for virtue signalling by the government. They have ignored white Americans dubiously held by Russia for years, but a black lesbian celebrity? They couldn't possible ignore that, and neither can the MSM. Hence this article.

Stupid woman. Taking cannabis to Russia. What an idiot. She has been very critical of the US government in the past. I wonder if her stance will soften now that she needs them to bail her out? 9 years in a Russian prison? She might be about to find out what racism and tyrannical regimes really look like. Interesting angle with the link to Viktor Bout as well. Illegally kidnapped in Bangkok by US agents and requested as part of an exchange deal.

People ignoring the law? What do you expect when you set the example by illegally ousting a democratically elected government and rewriting the constitution? Maybe you could use some of the cash from the subs or the jets to properly compensate the victims? Or are you all mouth and no trousers? That was a rhetorical question btw.

Wow what a terrible tragedy. Let's hope all the survivors pull though. I wonder what caused the explosions?

Coming soon to a field near you.

I'm never one to speculate, but I can't help but wonder if someone became upset when they discovered that he wasn't really a rich Prince that needed help moving vast sums of money following an inheritance...

I don't really believe these stories. I mean, do people secretly dump Vodka into fruit smoothies they are selling so the customer gets a warm glow and comes back for more? No, because Vodka costs money, same as Marijuana does so it decreases their profit margin and annoys the customers who haven't even asked for it. Personally I think it's inexperienced people taking too much, getting sick and then making up a story about someone sneaking it into their food to cover up their stupidity. The old, "Sorry for making a fool of myself at the office party, someone must have spiked my drink" story.

The constitution is irrelevant. They've re-written it before when required and could do so again. Staging a coup doesn't exactly make me think they care about the law. The real question is whether his handlers are happy with the job he is doing. Personally I get the feeling he is on borrowed time and might be replaced with another general quite soon. A case of "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss".

I don't believe people are putting it in food secretly, it's expensive so why would they? More likely the parents bought some hash brownies and left them where the kid could get them. No different to buying Alcopops and leaving an open bottle next to the kids bottle of squash then complaining about the evils of alcohol when the kid accidentally drinks it. Thais love to pass on the blame when they do something stupid.

That's not how it works at Sydney airport. Either you haven't travelled through Sydney airport, or you are lieing. I suspect the latter. As for trying to blame me for the issue, I didn't respond to anything until I had been queuing at the red zone for 45 minutes, I was simply stood in the queue. So even if I had been hostile (which I wasn't) then the simple sequence of events precludes your (false) assumption of my hostility being the cause of the issue. In fact, after I interacted with them, things sped up, my bag was scanned (as opposed to being opened and searched like most people in the red zone) and I was on my way. I won't respond by putting you on ignore, that would make me as childish as you. Besides, your fanciful, incoherent, illogical stories amuse me from time to time ????.

I see. Irish ancestry mixed with Scottish/Australian lower class culture. The nature of your posts are slowly starting to make more sense. Forgive me if I ignore your future ramblings.

If you declare something you have to go through the red zone which in my case meant a 45 minute wait before they even speak to you about what you are declaring. So frankly your advice is utter nonsense.

Great news. The pushback is continuing. No longer do poor, working class fans need to boo the largely uneducated, privileged, multi millionaires trying to preach Critical Race Theory to them before their local team plays a game of football. The fans point has been made, received and acted upon. Hopefully Southgate sees this and stops embarrassing the English national team with this misguided and inappropriate virtue signalling. https://www.sportsmax.tv/football/international/item/103582-premier-league-players-to-stop-taking-a-knee-before-every-game

Sorry old chap, would you mind posting that again in The Queens English? Jolly good.

Nice job trying to blame me, but I didn't have any attitude until an hour after being pulled out of the nothing to declare queue, given that I had nothing to declare. I was still polite 45 minutes into the process of having nothing to declare, despite being given a load of attitude by the glorified security guards and watching other young, presentable female passengers being treated worse than me after a 9 hour flight in a mask. I was also well dressed given that I was being picked up at Sydney airport by a colleague for a board meeting. The fact you've been lucky so far should not make you so smug.

I don't give anything now. I gave a few things when I first came here. One example, the girlfriend's sister was stuggling to get by due to her husband being a lazy dead beat. I had an old car which I gave to them to sell to raise some funds. Instead of saying thanks, she looked annoyed and asked my gf if I could sell it for her and just give her the cash to save her the hassle. Obviously I refused, so she sold it for about 50% of what it was worth the next day but didn't bother transferring the name in the book so it took me ages to track down the new owner and arrange the transfer. Luckily, it hadn't been used in a crime or killed any pedestrians while still in my name. Now, any requests are dismissed out of hand. They've given up asking thankfully. My advice is don't bother. At best they won't be grateful, at worst they will think you're a gullible fool.

I'm talking about left wing echo chambers, not independent polls. Nice deflection though.

Used to be. I lived there for a year in 1997-98 and absolutely loved it. It's a different country now. Very Orwellian, cameras everywhere, digital signage about not drinking too much, not gambling too much, being a responsible citizen etc. Huge fines for small traffic violations, incredibly expensive cost of living, poor service standards etc. The immigration officials attitude just feels in keeping with the way the place has gone to be honest. I wonder how long before they introduce the social credit score with points deducted for swearing, drinking, gambling etc. ????. Also, in Sydney at least the laid back, friendly, easy going culture seems to have been changed by excessive immigration. I visited for 6 days at the end of June and couldn't wait to get back to Thailand.

They absolutely love it. Probably got rejected from the police force application for being too short. In my case, some rude little official approached me in the Nothing To Declare queing zone and demanded to see my boarding pass. Then he ordered me to the "Something to declare" zone for a random check. Lucky I could understand his thick Chinese/Australian accent or he'd have probably had me arrested. Once there, I queued for 30 minutes before some middle aged frumpy woman snatched the pass and told me to wait where I was. Then she ordered me to take one step back and wait. Then summoned me forward again. She was also clearly LOVING the authority. Then ordered down aisle 3 or whatever where some other passenger was having all her neatly packed belongings dumped out of the suitcase (underwear, cosmetics etc.) onto a table by some obnoxious Karen in rubber gloves. She was then told to leave, rudely. Then they asked me what I was declaring and I abruptly replied Nothing (I was getting pretty annoyed by that point). Fortunately they just scanned my suitcase instead of dumping the contents onto the table. Then I was told to Go, rudely. Lovely welcome to Australia. Makes the Thailand customs officials look like Angels. Lucky I didn't have any crumbs of the aeroplane food on me or I'd have probably been fined thousands by the little scrotes.